Once Upon A Dream
by inspiredinfj
Summary: Faybelle must decide whether being the Dark Fairy is more important to her than listening to her heart.


Faybelle waited for her in the castle dungeon, her enchanted lullaby resounding darkly throughout the cavernous room. She hummed the age-old tune as she walked, fingers dusting over the towers of broken spindles and returning black with char. She could feel her approach and she knew, it was only a matter of time before her descent from the spiral staircase would lead her to where Faybelle waited, and watched.

The sound of slippered feet on stone gave Faybelle pause. She cut her song short, liquid music echoing into silence. Faybelle turned to face the staircase and there, at the base, stood Briar.

She was beautiful, startlingly so. A dream in soft pink and sheer fabric that floated around her ankles and shoulders. Her curls were pinned away from her face, revealing a romantic blush across warm, brown skin, and roses adorned her hair like a crown. Everything about her was a stark contrast to the black and decaying atmosphere around her, to Faybelle's own ring of thorns that seemed to grow tighter around her neck with each breath.

Faybelle looked to Briar's eyes, searching for something familiar there, but all she saw was the cold gleam of her own fairy magic. She sighed.

Briar continued to walk the straight path Faybelle had cleared for her among the ruin. As she did, ash caught in her hair and dirtied her slippers. Obscured by the wall of burnt spinning wheels between them, Faybelle followed her to the center of the room, where she'd resurrected a single, polished spinning wheel. The spindle's tip glimmered in the dim light and beckoned the princess to touch with an allure she couldn't refuse.

Having led Aurora's daughter to her demise, Faybelle was nothing more than an observer now. She wondered if this was supposed to be a satisfying moment for her. Surely it had been for the Dark Fairies who had journeyed the same path before her. She wondered if they too felt the joy her mother incessantly described and if she was broken for feeling sick instead.

Briar reached forward with an unwavering hand, her index finger poised above the sharp needle. She filled the handbreadth distance without pause and, in the instant before she touched the cold metal, Faybelle swore she could see her lips lift into a faint smile.

A hand closed over Briar's, stopping her from meeting her fate and instead pulling her into a pair of pale arms.

"Faybelle?" came a weak voice. Faybelle could feel Briar's arms tighten around her neck, could see Briar draw back to look at her. She was close, so close that Faybelle could smell roses. "What's going on?"

Faybelle opened her mouth to answer, but didn't know how. Instead, she drew Briar's hair over her shoulder, loving how warm and _alive_ she felt against her own icy, gray skin. "I couldn't do it," was all she could say.

"Oh, Faybelle," Briar hummed adoringly, and held the fairy's face between her palms.

Faybelle looked up, finding gold in the brown of her eyes and freckles over the bridge of her nose. She allowed her eyes to drift down to her lips, unsure whether the heat she felt in her face was from Briar's hands or her own blush. She hesitated, hovering there in uncertainty, except it was Briar who filled the space between them. She pulled Faybelle's lips against hers with a softness Faybelle never knew existed before her.

"I couldn't curse you," Faybelle tried to explain. For some reason, Briar understanding her thoughts seemed like the most important thing in that moment, though the princess continued to press breathy kisses into her lips, gentle as she could. "I'm supposed to hate you…" Faybelle watched Briar through her eyelashes, struggling to focus on her words now rather than the heady sight of the girl kissing her. "Not smile when you smile…" Briar kissed her again, this time deep enough to make Faybelle's eyes slip closed. "Or feel warm all over when you're near… So pathetic…" she breathed, her words barely a puff against Briar's rosy lips.

"Faybelle," Briar finally said, and pulled away just far enough to level the other with a steady gaze. Her smile reached her eyes. "I love you too."

* * *

 **A/N** : Inspired by "Once Upon A Dream" from _Maleficent_. I took the lines "I know you, I walked with you once upon a **dream**. I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a **gleam** " pretty literally. It was supposed to end with Faybelle daydreaming about stopping Briar but actually turning away and letting her be cursed because "visions are seldom what they seem," but sometimes you just have to write kisses and happy endings and this was one of those times.


End file.
